Patterico's Pontifications

9/24/2017

Who Will “Take a Knee” on This Sunday?

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:19 am



Many will take two, in church. But what about just one — on the field, with a hashtag in front of the phrase?

#TAKEAKNEE!!!!

Not being a sports guy, I could not care less about any of this — but some of you probably want to talk about it because it’s one of those hot topics that everyone has to have a passionate opinion about. So have at it.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back, if you want to discuss the topic without having people insult you. Sometimes people like that kind of thing.]

406 Responses to “Who Will “Take a Knee” on This Sunday?”

  1. Ding.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  2. Used to love watching the New England Football team. Now I’m off to the next book to read.

    mg (31009b)

  3. Today, two games started at 10AM on TV in LA. CBS & Fox. Both networks intentionally obscured who was kneeling and who was standing, although there seemed to be a black/white divergence.

    The crowd was quiet (or muted), the stands seemed full (New England and Philly), and nobody was walking out.

    (reposted)

    Kevin M (752a26)

  4. This is Trump upstaging Levine’s latest gambit. Trump better take his 1st qtr lead and go home with the Gorsuch pigskin.

    Ben burn (dc0ec1)

  5. I would like to say that I am boycotting the NFL today but the truth is that I am going to see Hamilton. I hear that the Electoral College issue is swept under the rug.

    AZ Bob (8784fc)

  6. Talked to someone who knows. There is now a recognized medical condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (TCE) and the people who are studying it and treating it call it “NFL Brain”. Like Mad Cow was for bovine spongiform encephalopathy.

    Their advice: Don’t let your kids play football. The injuries build up over time beginning at any age when they start getting hit on the head.

    nk (dbc370)

  7. @ Kevin M: I’m watching the Texans at Patriots game. The entire Texans team and staff stood, arms linked at the elbow (one player had his own hand on his hip without linking the adjacent player’s arm but the adjacent player had his arm on that guy’s shoulder; micro-aggression? I dunno). The camera did indeed show both the Patriots players with linked elbows and the handful of Patriots players who’d taken a knee. Where I think the networks put a thumb on things was a very-very-very quick cutaway to commercial after the last note, whereupon you could begin to hear (before it was cut off) a powerful wave of booing from the New England fans, booing the players on their own team who’d taken the knee, if I guess correctly.

    There will be media arguments all day today and into next week over the facts, and the reporting of the facts, at NFL stadia across America, arguments reminiscent of those about the relative crowd size at Trump’s inauguration.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  8. There will be media arguments all day today and into next week over the facts, and the reporting of the facts, at NFL stadia across America, arguments reminiscent of those about the relative crowd size at Trump’s inauguration.

    If there is a false version of these events that benefits Trump, maybe we can bring back Sean Spicer to deliver that fabrication to the media!

    Patterico (115b1f)

  9. Although football is the leading entertainment it’s still in decline as a sport. Loyal fans of the crypto fascist metaphor for war still dominate the intellectual Zeitgeist, so it has THEM going for it. Concussions are for wimps.

    Ben burn (dc0ec1)

  10. Several people, including many on the Ravens in London, took a knee today. One guy even stretched and warmed up while the anthem was being played, and then walked back to the bench at the last line!!

    Maybe the league just wanted publicity. None of the guys have been arrested for murder or mayhem lately and it was getting kind of boring.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  11. For what it’s worth, I’m a pretty big fan of individualism, and opponent of collectivism and herd thinking. I don’t go to many sporting events but we go to the Hollywood Bowl a dozen times a summer, and they always play the national anthem before the show. I always stop what I am doing, stand, put my hand on my heart, and sing.

    (Then the anthem ends and someone always yells “play ball!” as if they’re the first ones to think of the joke.)

    Patterico (115b1f)

  12. Although Rugby is a rough sport injuries are much less serious even though they wear little protection. It’s ez to feel impervious to harm when you’re in an Iron Man suit.

    Ben burn (dc0ec1)

  13. IMO Trump really blew it with his Alabama remarks.

    Here’s what I would’ve said if I felt a comment on the kneelers was warranted.

    This anti-anthem kneeling fad was started by a guy who wears pigs-in-police-uniform socks, Fidel Castro t-shirts, who considers himself politically “woke” and yet has never bothered to register to vote. If that is being politically “woke” I can understand why people who claim to be anti-fascist are setting fires, breaking windows and swinging bicycle locks against the heads of people advocating freedom of speech”.

    Instead he gives the race-baiter agit-prop organizers everything they can wish for….an opportunity to cast it as racist. Today the Pittsburgh Steelers refused to come out for the anthem….except for one player who stood just outside the tunnel with his hand over his heart. He’s also btw an ex-army ranger.

    harkin (fc9aef)

  14. Trump said at the Luther Strange rally that if even one player bent a knew, the spectators whould walk out of the stadium and that would get the protests to stop.

    (Now if it’s television, they don’t like as drop in the ratings but the spectators already paid for their tckets.)

    Sammy Finkelman (ff268d)

  15. I’m thinking that the people in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida and Wisconsin are probably behind Trump on this kneeling issue.

    AZ Bob (8784fc)

  16. Yes AZ. They also anticipate his promise the Industrial Age would return to save them from their lack of planning.

    Ben burn (dc0ec1)

  17. “Although Rugby is a rough sport injuries are much less serious even though they wear little protection.”

    Playing rugby without a helmet is idiocy regardless of injury stats but not everyone agrees with you.

    “The same Auckland University of Technology report showed American football resulting in 1.0 catastrophic incidents per every 100,000 players between 1975 and 2005. That’s more than 75% fewer incidents than the index tallied in rugby.”

    http://www.brain-injury-law-center.com/latest-news/head-injuries-rugby-vs-football/

    harkin (fc9aef)

  18. @ nk (#6): Trump also picked a side on the TCE arguments at the Luther Strange rally in Birmingham, criticizing the refs for throwing too many roughing-type flags because the players really want to crash into each other, according to Trump. That may or may not be a poll-driven calculation. But it’s not as attractive an issue for him to stir up, because no one is in favor of TCE as such. With the “take a knee” argument, by contrast, one can reliably depend on everyone who considers himself any sort of patriotic American to feel passionately about this issue — either passionate against Kaepernick’s actions or passionate in favor, depending on where they set their lens and choose to stop engaging their argument opponents on an apples-to-apples basis.

    My mother signed me up for pee-wee football at the earliest possible age in my hometown, which was fifth grade. My school had two fifth-grade teams, as a result of which players of extremely limited talent but sufficient bulk and mass (e.g., me) could still be given playing positions in either the offensive or defensive line. I remember precisely one play from my fifth-grade year, during another severe drubbing, when I managed to fall upon and recover a fumble and hence was a hero for the next seven minutes, until we were again forced to punt and the run-back scored.

    In sixth grade I continued to play in the defensive line, but they’d combined the two teams from the fifth grade into one sixth-grade team, with more total players. So while I still had enough bulk and mass to be useful in occupying space on the defensive line during practice, there were plenty of much better athletes who played offense in practice and then played “both ways” in games, since even without practicing on defense they were better than me. I therefore have no plays from that season’s games to remember, since I spent the whole season on the sidelines.

    During practice, however, I did have a brief, shining moment. One of the drills we regularly ran was something called, accurately, a “head-on drill,” which I think is now exactly what would be considered the worst possible and most dangerous possible drill possible to imagine today. The guy who regularly took my spot in games, a sweet-natured 200# sixth grader named Billy Ray Mayfield (later, in high school, an all-stater), and I were lined up 20 yards from each other and instructed to run as fast as we could toward each other until we intersected in the same space at the same time. Our collision that day had sufficient force that the dome of my helmet shattered like an eggshell, which the coach noticed as he pulled my limp body into something approaching a sitting-up position.

    The coach was not much of a physicist, or he would have realized that most of the energy that went into the collision came from Billy Ray’s mass x velocity, which could as easily shatter my helmet as my own mass x velocity. But it was my helmet, so I got credit for the “great hit!” And since my helmet was now useless, I got the rest of that practice off.

    Upon entering seventh grade, I was obliged to choose between continuing football, meaning continuing to serve as a tackling dummy with zero chance of play-time, but which my teammates and friends nevertheless urged upon me in genuine goodwill (I wasn’t a whiner), or instead playing the cornet in the junior high school band, which had girls, not all of whom were interested in football players. Even if I was still concussed from that drill that had broken my helmet, I could clearly figure out my relative odds of attracting a girlfriend as the band’s best cornet player or as the team’s still-loyal tackling dummy. I made the right decision, and while I had the occasional bandsman’s collision with the errant sousaphone player, I think I suffered no more concussions. My love life certainly prospered comparatively throughout high school and college as a direct result of that choice.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  19. They also anticipate his promise the Industrial Age would return to save them from their lack of planning.”

    Almost as bad as thinking The Great Society programs would result in drops in illiteracy, illegitimacy, crime, drug use and political corruption.

    harkin (fc9aef)

  20. Don’t forget, Trump also came out against the NFL’s stab at avoiding injuries to players.

    He’s complaining that the NFL is doing too much to avoid injury to their players and how maybe that’s why ratings are down this year. He gave a riff about that at the rally for Luther Strange.

    Today if you hit too hard — 15 yards! Throw him out of the game! They’re ruining the game. That’s what they want to do. They want to hit. They want to hit! It’s hurting the game.

    – Donald Trump, as quoted by the New York Times Sunday.

    I don’t think Donald Trump is such a big tradional football fan, but he may think some people in Alabama are! And that they disproportinately are inclined to vote for Roy Moore. It probably won’t get the Moore voters to switch to Strange.

    Trump also used a southern accent to imitate Republican Senators, whom he said wanted some favor from him (mostly personal courtesies) unlike, he said, Luther Strange.

    Sammy Finkelman (ff268d)

  21. Harkin…my point is that equipment makes one feel invincible. I remember a guy on steroids saying once he felt he could muscle an 18 wheeler in his passenger car.

    Ben burn (dc0ec1)

  22. @ harkin, who wrote (#13):

    Instead he gives the race-baiter agit-prop organizers everything they can wish for … an opportunity to cast it as racist.

    Yes, you’re absolutely right. And do you doubt that this is exactly what Trump intended? He picked this as his base-rallying issue d’jour, because he knows how it polls, and he could easily manipulate the “take-a-knee” crowd into exactly the reaction they’re having.

    It’s deeply cynical but likely to be effective, again.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  23. @ Patricia (#10): No, this is not the publicity the League’s owners want at all. This is spectacularly and rapidly devaluing their long-term capital investments in one of the biggest money-making rackets ever devised. The network sports divisions (or at least anyone who can see past this week’s ratings) want to change the subject, but the network news divisions won’t let them.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  24. “…..my point is that equipment makes one feel invincible”

    Maybe more protected but anyone who’s ever played the game of organized tackle football and who possesses a functioning brain can tell you the last thing you feel on the field is invincible.

    On the field, in the locker room and on the bus you’re surrounded by pain (I broke my back making a tackle my senior year).

    harkin (fc9aef)

  25. “And do you doubt that this is exactly what Trump intended? He picked this as his base-rallying issue d’jour, because he knows how it polls, and he could easily manipulate the “take-a-knee” crowd into exactly the reaction they’re having.”

    Yes I do doubt it, I don’t think Trump had race in mind during his speech, only anti-Americanism and lack of patriotism.

    But then I also don’t think his travel ban was racist, only anti-terror.

    harkin (fc9aef)

  26. It was meant sarcastically, Beldar.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  27. Football is under attack, as are every other American institutions , not as currently played but the idea of competition, sportsmanship and professional development. Only certain conscious raising enavours are deemed legitimate, its a little like the Catalan referendum, it is top down collectivist exercise in the guise of graSs roots, and with antifa and islamist overtones

    narciso (d1f714)

  28. Oh! Sorry, Patricia. Thank you for the civil correction, I ought have guessed as much.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  29. I agree with Harkin at 13. This is not a political fight. It’s egos.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  30. @ harkin (#26): I didn’t say Trump had race in mind. I think he had the Trump Brand in mind, as he always does in every decision. If he can promote the Trump Brand by doing something that will be perceived by large numbers of the voting public as fighting a “good fight,” he’ll do that. He does it with race, he does it with sex, he does it with religion, he does it with anything that large numbers of people feel passionately about, because con men don’t care about any of those things but they do care about their marks’ continuing passionate belief in the con man.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  31. harkin (fc9aef) — 9/24/2017 @ 11:45 am

    I don’t think Trump had race in mind during his speech, only anti-Americanism and lack of patriotism.

    I think he had in mind the Roy Moore-Luther Strange race, and that was the only kind of race he had in mind. And he didn’t believe appeals to racism would help, and that’s not what he tried. Appeals to racism are imaginary Republican tactics Democrats decry to increase turnout.

    But then I also don’t think his travel ban was racist, only anti-terror.

    Not not racist – anti-immigrant and pro-campaign promise, but not anti-terror.

    Sammy Finkelman (ff268d)

  32. Great story, Beldar.

    nk (dbc370)

  33. here’s the list of the companies like Intel and lyft and Nike what spend monies to license the tarnished and trashy NFL brand

    this is an odd marketing choice i think

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  34. 32 – how many times must conservatives point out that “anti-illegal immigration” is not anti-immigration?

    harkin (fc9aef)

  35. Ancillary…

    “It occurs to me that his tweets are at least arguably in violation of 18 U.S. Code § 227. That section prohibits the POTUS (among others), from “attempting to influence or interfere” in a private company’s labor matter, to urge a “political” firing. This is especially true where the basis for the POTUS’s urging of the firing of such a private company employee (union covered, collective bargaining agreement governed) — is (as here) centered on protected political first amendment expression.”

    https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/09/24/did-president-trump-violate-federal-law-with-his-alabama-rant/

    Ben burn (dc0ec1)

  36. Patricia w being tongue and cheek, yes they can do what they wish, but they will suffer consequences for it.

    narciso (d1f714)

  37. Zampolit Ben, needs to render his dictat

    narciso (d1f714)

  38. @2 mg

    Have NEP’s entered The Scottish Play realm?

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  39. @nk: There is now a recognized medical condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (TCE) and the people who are studying it and treating it call it “NFL Brain”.

    Yes, well, what counts as a recognized medical condition is not always, unfortunately, based on sound science. If TCE turns out to be real and playing football really is a significant risk for it, then football would have to change. But I think there are people who want football to change, who are getting way out in front of science on this one.

    Frederick (a81afc)

  40. No lawyers biting on 18 US?

    Ben burn (dc0ec1)

  41. We Gon’ Get Paed

    Tom Brady and New England Patriots feat

    Da Neelahs

    Pinandpuller (f6eed4)

  42. That passage about the putting away of foolish things:
    dailycaller.com/2017/09/24/former-army-ranger-is-only-steelers-player-to-stand-for-national-anthem-video/?utm_source=site-share

    narciso (d1f714)

  43. Jerry Jones: Cowboys Will Stand For The Flag Or “Your Ass Will Be Off The Team”

    Mr. Jerry Jones is a good man and very sensible like President Trump

    they see this situation with clear eyes

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  44. Aviator McCain shoots down healthcare, Trump bails and changes subject.

    Well played, sir.
    ____

    Professional sports is a business; an entertainment enterprise whose primary goal is to turn a profit. Using military flyovers, parading of colors and the National Anthem as marketing tools to enhance the packaging of the product has always risked politicizing it. There’s been an upside and a downside to this ploy over the decades, in good times and fearful times. But generating any us-versus-them-type-controversy that spikes attention– and viewers- is what they want. And they got it.

    Specific to the NFL, ratings are cratering. The league, networks and advertisers have millions invested in it. It needed some attention. And the owners were big Trump donors as well. So he tossed a ‘Hail Mary,’ the press caught it and are running with it. The media well played, sir. Well played, indeed.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  45. Pinandpuller
    I don’t believe in curses, but having lawmen in my family- I do believe in treating policeman with dignity.
    If thats what you mean?

    mg (31009b)

  46. John Wayne Gacy and Richard Ramirez both got hit in the head by swings when they were kids but they were more into wrestling than football FWIW.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  47. I read that all of the Houston oilers stood tall today in New England, Hope they kick tb 12’s azz.

    mg (31009b)

  48. Houston Texans, sorry.
    Loved Earl Campell

    mg (31009b)

  49. @pinandpuller:John Wayne Gacy and Richard Ramirez both got hit in the head

    Lots of people get hit in the head and don’t become serial killers.

    Frederick (a81afc)

  50. CampBell

    mg (31009b)

  51. @10 Patricia

    Arise, Sir You’re Fired!

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  52. 1. Take a stand on something that is overwhelmingly popular, but progressives hate (pledge of allegiance at football games, kids mowing lawns, enforcing immigration laws, etc).
    2. Progressives and their media go nuts condemning the overwhelmingly popular stand.
    3. Profit!

    Gonna be a long three years.

    Frederick (a81afc)

  53. They don’t make them like Eric Liddell anymore. Kneeling before the blocks wouldn’t cut it.

    Pinandpuller (f6eed4)

  54. Brandon Marshall got fined $10,500 for wearing green shoes to try to bring attention to mental health (especially if you have a green shoe fetish or phobia).

    Marshall posted the league letter informing him of the fine on Twitter and wrote: “Football is my platform not my purpose. This fine is nothing compared to the conversation started & awareness raised.”

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  55. What would Pat Tillman do? I don’ think this is it.

    crazy (d99a88)

  56. Pat Tillman would say ‘Trump…is fu*king illegal’.

    Ben burn (dc0ec1)

  57. Is that the best you can do?

    crazy (d99a88)

  58. All the black cowboys are going to have to teach their horses to kneel now while the color guard makes their rounds.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  59. Liberals have been taking a knee from colin kaepernick to monica lewinsky.
    James Wood

    mg (31009b)

  60. @19 Beldar

    I’m having a hard time finding it on Google, but an incident happened several years ago at (I think) Cheyenne Frontier Days.

    A guy was driving a four horse team in a parade and they spooked and got away from him. His rig plowed through the middle of a marching band. All I remember is my dad quoting the teamster,”I shouted at them to get out of the way but they kept on playing!”

    Speaking of police abuse and parades, another incident happened at Deer Creek Days in Glenrock, WY. A cop tased an old white guy riding on a tractor in middle of the parade. Details to follow if I get the chance.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  61. 50 Patriots 36 Texans 33

    kishnevi (2dabdc)

  62. 65. Who gives a $hit?

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  63. I didn’t think they could be more irrelevant, but they proved me wrong, except for alex Villanueva, a west point graduate and fmr army ranger

    narciso (d1f714)

  64. Thats better than the Salt Lake nurse.

    urbanleftbehind (b003da)

  65. Specific to the NFL, ratings are cratering.
    DCSCA (797bc0) — 9/24/2017 @ 12:44 pm

    AKA “Danger Close”

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  66. mg

    I would have accepted The Team that Dare not Speak It’s Name.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  67. Frederick

    Why don’t people kneel during Send in the Clowns?

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  68. When Johnny goes kneeling down again

    Hurroo, hurroo

    When Johnny goes kneeling down again

    Hurroo, Hurroo

    Football’s over, basketball’s shot

    NASCAR and hockey is all we got

    We know most sports are gay when

    Johnny goes kneeling down

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  69. @pinandpuller:Why don’t people kneel during Send in the Clowns?

    Dunno. Has something to do with ostentation, or its perception. The same people who hied to their fainting couch over Tim Tebow are totally cool with kneeling during the anthem, and vice versa.

    After 9/11 when the American flag started going up everywhere, there were a bunch of snarky editorials about how low-class and deplorable that behavior was–and in Seattle, after Election day 2008, you never saw so many American flags in places they weren’t there before.

    But what kind of civilization can you expect, with just recently-upright plains apes to work with. It’s a wonder we get anything done.

    Frederick (a81afc)

  70. After 9/11 when the American flag started going up everywhere, there were a bunch of snarky editorials about how low-class and deplorable that behavior was

    They may have had a point. I saw loads of flags flapping in the breeze months afterwards, looking tattered, bedraggled, soiled with dirt, and generally looking like they had done service in a war zone, because these patriots had apparently never heard the part about treating the flag respectfully
    https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/4/chapter-1
    Particularly violated sections being 6(c), 8(e), and 8(k).

    kishnevi (2dabdc)

  71. @kishnevi:I saw loads of flags flapping in the breeze months afterwards

    Katha Pollit only gave it eight days, she wrote this September 20, 2001:

    “My daughter, who goes to Stuyvesant High School only blocks from the World Trade Center, thinks we should fly an American flag out our window. Definitely not, I say: The flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and war. She tells me I’m wrong–the flag means standing together and honoring the dead and saying no to terrorism. In a way we’re both right: The Stars and Stripes is the only available symbol right now. In New York City, it decorates taxicabs driven by Indians and Pakistanis, the impromptu memorials of candles and flowers that have sprung up in front of every firehouse, the chi-chi art galleries and boutiques of SoHo. It has to bear a wide range of meanings, from simple, dignified sorrow to the violent anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry that has already resulted in murder, vandalism and arson around the country and harassment on New York City streets and campuses. It seems impossible to explain to a 13-year-old, for whom the war in Vietnam might as well be the War of Jenkins’s Ear, the connection between waving the flag and bombing ordinary people half a world away back to the proverbial stone age. I tell her she can buy a flag with her own money and fly it out her bedroom window, because that’s hers, but the living room is off-limits.”

    Frederick (a81afc)

  72. I am glad I never heard of Katha Pollit before now.

    kishnevi (2dabdc)

  73. Be thankful,

    narciso (d1f714)

  74. @62 mg

    Whatshisname couldn’t take one knee from Colin McGreggor, much less both.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  75. Mayweather and Connor, rather.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  76. Ravens don’t kneel. I think when the leg joints go the other way it’s considered roosting or perching.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  77. Frederick

    End-zone dances are a form of expression, no?

    I want to see Oprah show up to a game:

    Look under your bench gentleman. You’ve got a fine, and you’ve got a fine, and you’ve got a fine…

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  78. That’s positively Katha-esque.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  79. End-zone dances are indeed forms of expression. What’s being expressed is the player’s feeling upon scoring. If it’s intended to be offensive, the only target is the other team who’s just been scored upon. Some fans will find it entertaining, some won’t, but hardly any fans will be ready to get into a fist-fight with the fan next to him over it.

    The “take-a-knee” crowd, by contrast, isn’t intending to entertain. They absolutely, positively are intending to offend, on topics having nothing whatsoever to do with football, with an audience that’s bought tickets or submitted to advertisements in order to see a football game, not to attend a political lecture, and regardless of their views on the merits of the lecture or the reaction they’d have if those same athletes rented a conference room to hold a news conference on an off day.

    In First Amendment analysis, any attempt by government to limit or penalizing this expression would be doomed: Not only is this protected speech, it’s political speech that is considered to be at the “core” of the First Amendment’s protections. Even content-neutral “time, place & manner” regulations would therefore have to be based upon a compelling state interest, and they’d have to satisfy least-restrictive-means testing. So there’s just no colorable legal argument that Trump, or the Jacksonville City Council, or anyone could use law to abridge these players’ rights to take a knee.

    Duh. Anyone who’s arguing about the First Amendment either way here is a moron, comparable to the kind of morons who think there’s a hate speech exception to the First Amendment. Let’s dispense with them as being hopeless. Moving from what’s legal or not, to what’s wise or not:

    Personally: I am moderately indifferent to the idea that the kneelers are “insulting the flag,” even though for at least some of them, that’s the sum total of their intent. Others are trying to be provocative to gain attention; I think that’s an ill-calculated strategy that they’ll ultimately regret, but reasonable people can certainly differ about that. If Colin Kaepernick wants to conduct flag-burnings on his own driveway seven days a week and twice on Sundays, he’s not going to win my friendship or admiration thereby, but he hasn’t ever earned anything more from me than modest acknowledgment of now-fading athletic skills, so he just really doesn’t matter to me. For all but a very few of these players, as with all but a very few Hollywood celebrities or others in “the arts,” I care nothing of or for their political opinions.

    Pro athletes trying to hijack, even briefly, their semi-captive audiences because they have access to that literal, physical forum, however, do matter to me. Not a lot, but some. They annoy me. They make me marginally less likely to keep watching any of the teams I don’t particularly care about. They make me marginally less likely to watch a Monday Night Football game this year than I was five years ago.

    These players are injecting toxic waste — controversy unrelated to sports, but absolutely related to the most passion-inducing issues in modern society — into the veins of their golden goose. It will sicken and die. As Arya would say: Valar morghulis; valar dohaeris. Maybe it’s for the best, but if so it will be a death unnaturally hastened by calculating politicians — Trump and anti-Trump.

    Trump bragged in Huntsville (which I misidentified earlier as Birmingham; I hear he also went elephant hunting in Tuscaloosa and shot an elephant in his pajamas) that many of the NFL owners are his good buddies, and indeed, some of them have been campaign supporters and contributors.

    But Trump holds grudges. Recall that the jury in the USFL’s antitrust lawsuit against the NFL agreed that the NFL had violated antitrust laws and used anticompetitive practices to drive the USFL out of business. Recall, too, that the USFL’s “star witness” in the trial was Donald J. Trump, a USFL co-founder, co-owner of one of its most successful teams, signer of its most famous star (Herschell Walker), and ultimately successful proponent of moving its games to compete head-on-head against the NFL in the fall. Recall, finally, that the trial ended in the ultimate humiliation: The jury assessed the USFL’s damages a $1. Not $1B, not $1M, not $1k, but $1.00. Trebled under the antitrust laws, that was $3.00.

    You think he has any love lost for those owners? Trump figures he’ll distract from the upcoming replay of the health care debacle by pumping up some chaos to dominate this week’s cable news, and that he’ll reassure and even grow his base over this nonsense.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  80. The police, too. Since these players are ostensibly protesting police brutality, Trump’s remarks are a sop to the cops.

    nk (dbc370)

  81. I won’t ask how an elephant got into Trump’s pajamas.

    nk (dbc370)

  82. Week 4: Take a knee for global warming. Week 5: Take a knee for abortion-on-demand. Week 6: Already reserved for breast cancer? Right? No, wait, that’s any kind of cancer this year and it’s all of October. How about we just cancel the third quarter of all the playoff games and invite Hillary to give dramatic readings then from “What Happened?”

    Beldar (fa637a)

  83. Thank you, nk (#86)! I knew I could count on someone like you for the rim-shot line!

    Beldar (fa637a)

  84. Who is making a first amendment arhpgument, besides the NFL has become increasingly stupid at a captain tupolev level since the cowboys were last winning bowls. They turned a deaf ear to 9/11 survivors and almost cobxurrently fallen police officers.

    narciso (d1f714)

  85. Los Angeles Chargers defensive end Chris McCain was not shy on his stance regarding President Trump’s comments regarding NFL players who choose to take a stance against social injustice by taking a knee during the national anthem, stating that he felt America has a leader who wasn’t on their side.

    “I feel that now we understand as a community our own Commander and Chief, a guy that we’re supposed to lean on and be here to protect us, but clearly he is not. He’s not on our side,” McCain said during media availability after the game per ESPN.

    McCain raises a point that more and more Americans are starting to realize about the current state of politics domestically, and that is, that President Trump feels appears to be somewhat out of touch when it comes to the realities and needs of the average citizen.

    wtf does a thugtrash NFL ass-pansy know about “the realities and needs of the average citizen”

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  86. Ha, ha, ha! Trump is a lot of things, but what he is not is out of touch of the realities and needs of the average citizen.

    nk (dbc370)

  87. Autimistaje is getting on my nerves, concurrently, I pointed out how professional poets were all part of the hoody and ‘hands up don’t shoot narrative’ even after the facts were indesputable

    narciso (d1f714)

  88. An old tweet from Iowahawk applies to the No Fun League:

    1. Identify a respected institution.
    2. kill it.
    3. gut it.
    4. wear its carcass as a skin suit, while demanding respect.
    #lefties

    Lenny (780504)

  89. Crimethink is verboten

    http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/36982

    narciso (d1f714)

  90. They asked old Steelers back Franco Harris about this taking a knee crap and he said if someone had tried to pull that stuff back then, his teammates Mean Joe Greene or Jack Lambert would have “counseled” them.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  91. It’s a different time in America… millionaires raised to believe they are victims and the “culture” dragged ever lower by the lowest common denominator. These people don’t have it in them to recognize the opportunity they have been given to act as upstanding citizens and role models to young men who need all the help they can get.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  92. @97. The elder Mr. Rooney would not have been amused. The Black and Gold is a little tarnished this day.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  93. 73 – Pinandpuller
    applause to you, sir.

    mg (31009b)

  94. @100 mg

    Thanks. Don’t add me, bro!

    For some reason I think that song, The Battle Hymn of the Republic and Ghost Riders in the Sky have a sort of confluence but I haven’t had a moment to test that theory.

    Pinandpuller (7a04ed)

  95. I’m not a sport guy, but I like reading those hot topics.

    piknu (b9bb69)

  96. @84 Beldar

    Yeah, flags and dead bodies don’t really care what you do to them. It’s about we the living and our taboos.

    Like, my ex-sister in law will never forgive me for wearing shorts to her wedding and I’ve learned to live with it.

    Pinandpuller (7a04ed)

  97. Has anyone asked the cheerleaders what they think?

    Has anyone ever? And no, I’m not buying one of your stupid Hooters calendars.

    Pinandpuller (7a04ed)

  98. @89 narciso

    I’m not, actually, but the NFL can levy all kinds of fines for “personal expression” when their players are at work. That’s my point overall.

    Pinandpuller (7a04ed)

  99. @92 narciso

    Is it “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” or a touchdown? Unclear.

    Pinandpuller (7a04ed)

  100. If you are traveling from Venezuela your duffle bag full of heads must fit under your seat and may be subject to a gate check.

    Pinandpuller (7a04ed)

  101. I wish I had the marketing prediction ability of Bill Browder. His analyzing where the fans billions of dollars will end up after the fans change their spending habits intrigue me. Billions will be up for grabs. The NHL and Nascar seem to be working for those billions. I can only hope these race baiting t.v. mouthpieces learn how little they will make being unemployed. My stomach aches because I can’t comprehend not having the special feeling when standing with my hand over my heart singing along when The National Anthem is played. It is the only time I sing in public.

    mg (31009b)

  102. Remember to keep your hezbillah passport and you ak 47 securely fastened in the overhead bin.

    narciso (d1f714)

  103. The Steelers previous owner wee the Obama’s ambassador to Ireland.

    narciso (d1f714)

  104. Great…(or sad for Bengal fans) Marvin Lewis will stay on another season for the simple reason of “at least my players came out for the anthem when that other _______ didn’t make his”.

    urbanleftbehind (2a286e)

  105. the thuggy NFL ass-pansies congratulate themselves on being united during the hurricanes (they made a fancy ad about how awesome they are) then while Puerto Rico is reduced to a kitten drowned in the caribbean toilet and the suffering is unimaginable they decide to engage in self-indulgent juvenile hatefulness and completely ignore the worst hurricane disaster since Katrina

    this tells me the sick racist NFL hates hurricane victims, and I don’t really know how they recover from that

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  106. Good point, happy, but one could point out, wouldnt that be more an MLB jurisdiction (or the Orlando Magic)?

    urbanleftbehind (2a286e)

  107. What was i referring to, this in part:
    http://www.saulmontes-bradley.com/latin-ballat

    narciso (d1f714)

  108. it’s just how they made a big fuss about how awesome they were during Harvey and Irma

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  109. If their action is not about politics and patriotism then separate it from the 2 min ceremonial tribute to the nation as the flag is displayed and the national anthem is played. With league and team approval gather together afterwords and kneel, lock arms, pray, protest or whatever they feel the irresistible urge to do.

    Trump may be acting like an ass, but they’re jumping the shark and are likely to learn the nation will endure with or without the NFL and their community organizing.

    crazy (d99a88)

  110. the NFL should just cut to the chase and do halftime shows where they burn the american flag and hang police officers in effigy

    why all this pussy-footing around

    they meed to man-up and do some REAL social justice all up in it

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  111. oops they *need* to man-up i meant to say

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  112. Putting the end to this will only happen one way.
    Fans not showing up for the games.

    mg (31009b)

  113. I read yesterday at The New England Football game, the concessions ran out of bottled water, so the wisdom of owner bobby kraft had the concession peeps sell glasses of tap water with ice for 6 bucks a glass. Priceless.

    mg (31009b)

  114. Ah yes, but they’re really just a bunch of overpaid phony warriors with an over-inflated sense of importance.

    crazy (d99a88)

  115. and I think it’s gonna be a long long time

    til touchdowns bring fans back again to find

    these nfl twats even like football

    oh no no no

    they like to mock the fans

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  116. When the refs raise both hands straight up
    don’t shoot

    mg (31009b)

  117. 123- for Pinandpuller

    mg (31009b)

  118. The NFL had better hope they’ve secured funding for any new stadium construction, because it won’t be possible until this behavior is changed. Showboating ingrate is not a good look.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  119. To the average American, seeing their flag and national anthem disrespected and politics entering into a space they go to to escape their cares and worries is enraging and unacceptable.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  120. The idiots playing in England stood for a nation that colonized Africa.

    mg (31009b)

  121. The Left are suddenly NFL fans. Anything Trump criticizes becomes a cause for them.
    Common cause with Never Trump.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  122. the NFL is now wholly aligned with fascist blue city-states what are increasingly contemptuous of the rule of law (and of their own increasingly lawless and racist police forces) and what increasingly embrace illegal immigration, drug use, and necrophilia

    it’s a toxic stew indeed

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  123. and trannies bathrooms, happyfeet

    mg (31009b)

  124. Coach Bill needs to fire the kneelers or retire. immediately.

    mg (31009b)

  125. Rev H. @ 126. That must be from an older rule book. Neither the 2017 NFL Rulebook nor the 2016 NFL Rulebook address the playing of the national anthem and displaying of the American flag. If that was in the rules as many believe, it must have been earlier.

    Reinstating it and separating political expression from the playing of the national anthem makes too much sense for Goodell and the NFL to do on their own.

    crazy (d99a88)

  126. UPDATE: Snopes.com claims that this rule does not, in fact, exist. The article cites the rule quoted above and reports “No such wording appears in the 2017 version of the Official Playing Rules of the National Football League.

    Yet the NFL’s Game Operations Manual — which the league refers to as its “bible” — is different than its rulebook. It is not available to the public. The rule cited above comes from the league itself, via the Washington Post.

    The Post reported Sunday that the NFL confirmed the rule’s existence but emphasized their ability to enforce it selectively:

    Under the league rule, the failure to be on the field for the anthem may result in discipline such as a fine, suspension or loss of a draft pick. But a league official said the key phrase is “may” result, adding he won’t speculate on whether the Steelers would be disciplined.

    The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league’s game operations manual, according to a league source.

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  127. Ah, ha. Thank you.

    crazy (d99a88)

  128. Re crazy @ 133. That’s why I wrote “supposed rules”, at the time I could not check for accuracy as I was taking breathing medicine and nebulizing. Regardless of the “rules” good form, good citizenship and respect for America and it’s citizens should stand for something. No?

    As usual the hypocrisy is abundant:

    On Saturday, Goodell responded directly to Trump, accusing the president of disrespecting the league, which asipires to “create a sense of unity in our country and our culture”:

    The NFL and our players are at our best when we help create a sense of unity in our country and our culture. There is no better example than the amazing response from our clubs and players to the terrible natural disasters we’ve experienced over the last month. Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities.

    Goodell hasn’t always been so supportive of his players engaging in free speech on the field.
    •Last year the NFL barred the Dallas Cowboys from wearing a decal on their helmet honoring the five police officers killed in a domestic terror attack.

    •The NFL also banned the Tennessee Titan’s linebacker, Avery Williamson, from honoring 9/11 victims by wearing cleats that read “9-11/01” and “Never Forget” on the 15th anniversary of the terror attack.

    •The NFL fined Robert Griffin III $10,000 for wearing a t-shirt during a press conference that said “Operation Patience.” (The shirt was created by Reebok and players are required to only wear clothing sold by Nike.)

    •RGIII also ran into trouble with the league for wearing a shirt that said “Know Jesus, Know Peace.”

    •The NFL has banned players from wearing Beats headphones on the field (doing so violated the league’s deal with Bose).

    •The Steelers’ William Gay was fined for wearing purple cleats, which he did to raise awareness for domestic violence (an issue Goodell claims the league takes seriously).

    •Goodell’s opposition to speech he dislikes is so determined that he even has a Patriots fan who flipped him off fired from his job.

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  129. I stand with you, Rev H. Your post explains why the rule doesn’t show up in the last two NFL rulebooks and likely why Goodell and company aren’t making it easy to locate the Game Operations Manual. I appreciate the update and pray for your good health.

    crazy (d99a88)

  130. “Ha, ha, ha! Trump is a lot of things, but what he is not is out of touch of the realities and needs of the average citizen.”

    ‘Baser’ needs.. Lowest common denominator is easy to read and apply.

    Ben burn (96ff85)

  131. Maybe we should cancel flybys and other military unit participation as long as this player protest coincides with the playing of the national anthem.

    crazy (d99a88)

  132. 137-crazy
    you betcha

    mg (31009b)

  133. It certainly seems reasonable to believe that with detailed gameday preparations the 200 page NFL Operations Manual likely contains the quoted rules regarding team/player sideline conduct during the 2 minute playing of the national anthem.

    14 minutes: Two game officials give the visiting team the 2-minute warning for departure from the locker room. The officiating crew’s side judge hands the team’s uniform designee a card advising him of the four randomly selected linemen (two offensive and two defensive) whom the official will check for unauthorized foreign substances on their uniforms as they leave the locker room.

    12 minutes: The visiting team leaves the locker room. Two officials give the home team the 2-minute warning for departure from the locker room. The officiating crew’s umpire hands the team’s uniform designee a card advising him of the four randomly selected linemen (two offensive and two defensive) whom the official will check for unauthorized foreign substances on their uniforms as they leave the locker room.

    10 minutes: The home team leaves the locker room. Visiting team player introductions begin.

    8 minutes: Home team player introductions begin.

    5 minutes: The national anthem begins. The league dictates that it can last no longer than 2 minutes.

    3 minutes: The national anthem ends.

    2 minutes: Coin toss. Each team can send as many as six player captains of its choosing, including one former player or coach serving as an honorary captain, but only one of them can call the coin toss or declare the team’s decision after the toss.

    1 minute: Both teams take the field.

    Kickoff

    Time will tell, but surrendering to the social justice mob is a foolish mistake for the NFL to make.

    crazy (d99a88)

  134. Rules? RULES!?!?… they don’t need no stinkin’ rules!

    They need a collective enema.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  135. “YOU STAY CLASSY, NFL: Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin Didn’t Want Army Vet To Stand For Anthem [VIDEO].

    Related: “Missed in all of the attention surrounding millionaire athletes kneeling for the National Anthem, [Sunday] was also Gold Star Mother’s and Family’s Day to honor those who’ve sacrificed so much for all of us.”

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/276458/

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  136. “Classy”, indeed.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  137. 139, they (the Armed Services) should encourage the PDs, Sheriffs, down to the private security contractors to stand down also.

    143, couldnt Villanueva just have pulled a Chewbacca-on-Lando Calrissian (or Darth Vader on the Captain of the Tantive IV) on Tomlin.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  138. Trump, hisself is an affront to the Flag.

    His disrespect is without precedent.

    Ben burn (96ff85)

  139. What does making a lot of money mean?

    Should one be more respectful because of riches? What is Trumps excuse?

    Ben burn (96ff85)

  140. Hillary would have sent ships to Puerto Rico devastation while Trump chides footballers.

    Ben burn (96ff85)

  141. Bush era: Protest is patriotic

    Obama era: Protest is racist

    Trump era: Protest is patriotic

    AZ Bob (8784fc)

  142. AS Bob,

    Shouldn’t that be “Trump era: Not protesting is patriotic”?

    DRJ (15874d)

  143. Puerto Ricans may be confused as Mexicans by some like Trump. It is part of US even though not a State.

    Ben burn (96ff85)

  144. This might be more on John Kelly re his beef with Luis Gutierrez.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  145. 155

    Small mindedness paints all Hispanics brown.

    Ben burn (96ff85)

  146. I guess this is what Patterico means by ‘posting too much’. I could put several into one but many people prefer sound bytes.

    Ben burn (96ff85)

  147. Unfortunately the best logistics and deployment center fir supplies, Roosevelt roads wee traded away in order to curry favor for red queens senate race.

    narciso (d1f714)

  148. I should think even your cold blood could find some compassion for Puerto Ricanos.

    Ben burn (96ff85)

  149. Context, considering Kelly as the gatekeeper of all relevant info:
    http://dailycaller.com/2017/09/18/rep-gutierrez-again-refuses-to-apologize-to-gen-kelly-video/

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  150. Missing from most of these discussions is the 750-pound gorilla in the room, the NFL Player’s Association.

    I say “750-pound” rather than “800-pound” because ultimately, the owners are still the 800-pound gorilla in the final analysis. Short of the final analysis, though, the owners, collectively and certainly individually, are absolutely cowed and psychologically dominated by the NFLPA and, in particular, the NFLPA’s consistent string of tactical and strategic victories over the owners in every form of litigation, arbitration, mediation, and public relations manipulation for the last three decades at least.

    The shadowy, low-key figure behind the scenes who’s responsible for this is actually a former partner of mine, Jeffrey L. Kessler, now a partner in the NYC office of Winston & Strawn. For three years (1989-1991), Kessler and I were partners in the same department (litigation), but in separate offices (New York and Houston respectively), of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Although we were thus not just colleagues but technically jointly and severally responsible for each other’s professional malpractice, I think that he and I spoke and shook hands perhaps four times at most during that time; I never worked with him directly, and I doubt either of us would recognize the other on the street despite having shared a (large) dinner table or two. (Sort of like Big Luther and Mitch McConnell, I guess.) But I definitely had the chance to view his work from a privileged and knowledgeable position. And I have a very, very high regard for his industry, ability, insight, and judgment. He’s a genuinely smart cookie.

    The NFLPA was an odd client for that firm at that time; technically the collective bargaining between the NFLPA and the League falls under “labor and employment law,” while Kessler was originally a general litigation specialist with a heavy concentration in antitrust law (one of the firm’s genuine specialities). But for decades now — most recently, in the forum-shopped Ezekiel Elliott suspension litigation — Kessler has beaten the owners around the head and shoulders each and every season. He has their number, and he surely haunts the sweaty nightmares of the League’s lawyers, whomever they hire. Kessler has a consummate sense of calculated strategic brinksmanship, and he uses it to play the owners like the proverbial fiddle.

    I have no doubt that he and his client (through the NFLPA’s current and former-players and their officers) are huddling today — probably in a Manhattan-based videoconference call — to decide what they want to do to best please the players in the short run, but to best protect them in the long run. If there’s anyone who gets the whole golden goose metaphor, it would be Kessler, and if there’s anyone who might actually be able to protect the players from themselves, it’s likewise him.

    Many of my former partners in NY, surely including Kessler, were personally acquainted with Trump going back to the days when he was, as one of them once told me, “a little pisher standing at his daddy’s knee juggling financing on crummy Brooklyn tenements.” So it’s not inconceivable to me — and indeed it seems quite likely — that Kessler and Trump might well touch bases directly. That’s another reason I doubt that this can end well for the owners.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  151. @110. Was thinking more of his father- he’s the one who built the franchise with the late, great Chuck Noll.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  152. Those familiar with the football traditions at Texas A&M probably know that standing, at least for those in the stands, is a very big deal:

    The 12th Man is the entire student body — past and present. Sprung from the selfless gesture of Aggie E. King Gill at a 1922 football game, the tradition embodies the core values held by the university. Students still show the 12th Man spirit at each athletic event — during football games, the student body stands for the entire event, ready to go into the game if needed. Learn more about this tradition at 12thMan.tamu.edu.

    Suppose Kaepernick had called a press conference last year to announce his concerns about race and policing and his solidarity with Black Lives Matter and whatever else motivates him. Suppose he’d announced, “And during future NFL games, as a non-disruptive protest of these things, I intend to spend all of my time on the sidelines, when not otherwise actively preparing to play or consulting with our coaches and my fellow players, in silent contemplation by taking a knee (rather than sitting on the bench or standing along the sidelines).”

    I’ve got zero problem with that as a means of political expression.

    Suppose Colin Kaepernick calls a press conference and says the same things, except this time the form of his protest will be unrelated to any NFL game. Rather, Kaepernick plans to buy a ticket to view Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors play NBA basketball, throughout which game, to call public attention to his (Kaepernick’s) protests, he intends to wear a pink beanie cap with a propeller on top. Provided that the propeller doesn’t block the view of the fans behind, I’ve got no problem with that either.

    What I object to is his hijacking the purpose and effect traditionally accorded to the playing of the National Anthem in order to amplify his political significance beyond that which he could achieve, by virtue of his athletic fame (such as it is/was), on his own in an ordinary forum for public debate and discussion. I would feel the same way if he were protesting to make a political point I personally agree with and support. If he said, “Next week, I’m taking a knee during the anthem to protest the destruction of our nation’s fiscal and medical health by that great scourge, Obamacare,” I would be exactly as disapproving as I am now of his adherents — Kaepernick wannabes, a phrase so pathetic as to be self-mocking — who are taking a knee to show some sort of solidarity with him or somebody about something, for the deliberate purpose of forcing football fans to submit to a political lecture that many of them find very offensive.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  153. But Beldar..you don’t mention how those athletes should be grateful for the money they make at Gladiator Camp. It’s a privilege they’ve been given and they don’t seem appropriately appreciative. College education and everything.

    Ben burn (96ff85)

  154. The first black man to play varsity football for the University of Texas at Austin, by the way, was Julius Whittier, later a classmate of mine in the Texas Law School Class of 1980, and now a criminal defense lawyer in Dallas. I have a great deal of respect for Mr. Whittier, who was in my same 1L section. He took and returned some teasing about being a jock amongst geeks, but I’m quite sure he never hijacked our con law class’s discussion of the Fourteenth Amendment by trying to run a football play between hypotheticals.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  155. It occurs to me that his tweets are at least arguably in violation of 18 U.S. Code § 227. That section prohibits the POTUS (among others), from “attempting to influence or interfere” in a private company’s labor matter, to urge a “political” firing. This is especially true where the basis for the POTUS’s urging of the firing of such a private company employee (union covered, collective bargaining agreement governed) — is (as here) centered on protected political first amendment expression.”

    https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/09/24/did-president-trump-violate-federal-law-with-his-alabama-rant/

    Ben burn (96ff85)

  156. Perhaps it’s time to play the Black National Anthem. Interesting suggestion. Hundred year old song with uplifting lyrics.

    crazy (d99a88)

  157. I used to have to listen to that one a lot. I forgot about the Sing A Song part. Its a part of my early childhood memory section where there was an series of posters that depicted the alphabet as follows A is for Afro, B is for beautiful, C is for cool….and I was an approximation of the macadamia nut in the middle of E is for Everybody.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  158. Just finished a glass of water and figured out why the owner of the new england football team bobby kraft was charging 6 bucks for a glass of tap water at the game yesterday. He is trying to pay for the Super Bowl ring he gave to Putin.

    mg (31009b)

  159. I hope govna chuck baker takes a knee next election.
    This moron could be Mitch Mcconnell Cares brotha.

    mg (31009b)

  160. My protest will be against the NFL… their shameful soapboxing, lack of respect for America and Americans. I refuse to watch games this season… No purchase of NFL Ticket this year.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  161. @172. =Haiku!= Gesundheit!

    They cared so little in San Diego, the Chargers… bolted. 😉

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  162. At least my Gov Rauner didnt cosign that letter against repeal.

    urbanleftbehind (2a286e)

  163. @ mg (#169): Here, here! And I demand that the New England Patriots Organization publicly and immediately release the ring size of that Super Bowl ring Trump said he was given by Bob Craft. Let’s dispel with this fiction about the POTUS having tiny hands, once and for all!

    Beldar (fa637a)

  164. The most lively activity on the Chargers field last season was that guy what was choking his chicken on the sidelines in the vid that went viral! I think he was watching the cheerleaders’ backfield in motion

    Illegal hold!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  165. Ring size 5

    Ben burn (96ff85)

  166. Seriously Pfc, can you pick another ax for grinding. The Anthem/Flag are symbols man..they aren’t living things.

    Mark 2:27

    Ben burn (96ff85)

  167. What I object to is his hijacking the purpose and effect traditionally accorded to the playing of the National Anthem in order to amplify his political significance beyond that which he could achieve, by virtue of his athletic fame (such as it is/was), on his own in an ordinary forum for public debate and discussion. I would feel the same way if he were protesting to make a political point I personally agree with and support. If he said, “Next week, I’m taking a knee during the anthem to protest the destruction of our nation’s fiscal and medical health by that great scourge, Obamacare,” I would be exactly as disapproving as I am now of his adherents — Kaepernick wannabes, a phrase so pathetic as to be self-mocking — who are taking a knee to show some sort of solidarity with him or somebody about something, for the deliberate purpose of forcing football fans to submit to a political lecture that many of them find very offensive.

    What you want is a protest that’s easy to ignore.

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  168. I’m going to protest Beldar’s posting by taking a knee in my kitchen.

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  169. Yet Tebow was rubbuahed fir observing the first commandment, and that tells you all you need to know about the nfl

    narciso (d1f714)

  170. Did Obama call Tebow a “son of a b*tch”?

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  171. I’m going to protest Beldar’s posting by taking a knee in my kitchen size 16 Florsheim in my keister.

    FIFY, squid 🐙

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  172. I’m protesting your protest, Davethulhu! Mwah-hah-hah!

    More seriously: I am protesting not against the fact that this protest is hard to ignore, but because it is using hostage-taking of a venue and setting that is intended for apolitical activities by consensual agreement of the tens of thousands of fans in the stands.

    In those stands, most — but never all — of the fans are standing respectfully during the National Anthem. There aren’t fist-fights over that, because they’re just other fans, and sometimes other fans are jerks. Some of them even root for the dog-*ss New England Patriots, for Pete’s sake! We generally manage more tolerance at our sporting events than at the average professional soccer match in most parts of the world.

    There is no doubt that people have First Amendment protection even when they’re being utterly stupid and imprudent in their choices about when and how to exercise those rights.

    What’s astonishing to me is that those supporting the “take-a-knee” players seem to presume a right to be utterly privileged from any negative consequence of any sort — any criticism, any turning-away, any dismissal from employment, or even any diminution in TV ratings or ticket sales or NFL-branded merchandise sales — while those players are deliberately offending the consumers of the only product they have to sell.

    Do you likewise rail against the heavens when, upon standing outside in a rainstorm, you get wet? One seems as predictable as the other, not a subject of surprise and certainly not of outrage.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  173. Apologies for that missed italics-close tag. I wasn’t really ranting anymore after the first em-dash.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  174. Che kaepernick is not subtle, has not all that talented at the end of the way.

    narciso (d1f714)

  175. Sadly villanueva was the first not to applaud, the whole thing reminds of that 80s afterschool special, the wave

    narciso (d1f714)

  176. How many American corporations would tolerate their employees openly showing disrespect for our flag and national anthem?

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  177. “They’re fighting for free speech — but they’re going to haze, shame, and ostracize any among them who don’t join them in the Coerced Speech.'”

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  178. I don’t understand, do you guys think the management of the various NFL teams is being coerced into accepting the players’ behavior? Up until Trump made this about himself, there was lukewarm support at best, but there’s no love lost between Trump and the NFL, so the visible management support for these protests is pretty much entirely his fault.

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  179. @190 which players have been coerced into joining the protests?

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  180. “America 2017: Only player forced by his team to apologize for national anthem reaction is the war vet who stood”

    — Scott Greer

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  181. Isn’t it the truth coronello, they have little respect for a veteran, for law enforcement even 9/11 survivors.

    narciso (d1f714)

  182. @193 On what basis beyond some random tweet do you have that Alejandro Villanueva was “forced” to apologize.

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  183. @189. =Haiku!= Gesundheit!

    Thing is, businesses w/lower public profiles usually would strive to avoid exposing themselves to that possibility. And any that do ‘wave the flag’ and such as part of their public image in the marketplace risk any controversy. Sometimes it’s in sync w/t times, sometimes not; Dow Chemical comes to mind. And, of course, flag-waver Trump had his ties made in China.

    W/respect to U.S. sports franchises in general and in this case, the NFL in particular, employing military flyovers, parading of colors and the National Anthem as marketing tools to enhance the packaging of the product has always risked politicizing it. There’s no real reason for it other than to add pomp and circumstance — it as nothing to do w/t games. There’s been an upside and a downside to this ploy over the decades, in good times and fearful times.

    OTOH, back in the day, when working for a large Japanese electronics firm w/operations based in the U.S., the work day always began w/t Japanese employees singing ‘the company song’ piped out over the intercoms. U.S, personnel were invited to join in– and a few always did– usually department managers– for obvious reasons.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  184. the communist steelers coach mean girled him

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  185. @ Davethulhu, who asked (#191):

    I don’t understand, do you guys think the management of the various NFL teams is being coerced into accepting the players’ behavior? Up until Trump made this about himself, there was lukewarm support at best, but there’s no love lost between Trump and the NFL, so the visible management support for these protests is pretty much entirely his fault.

    Working from the end of your question backward:

    Whether it’s a fault or a boon, I certainly agree that Trump’s tweets proximately caused the owners’ parallel reactions that were largely in sympathy with the players whom Trump was criticizing.

    I likewise agree there’s no love lost between Trump and the NFL, see above (#84) re the USFL trial.

    I likewise agree that Trump made this about himself, i.e., deliberately injected himself into this controversy with the avowed intention of being provocative in order to command public attention when other subjects of discussion might be the demise of the GOP healthcare plans, the lack of progress toward other meaningful legislation, the looming war (or actually, breaching of the armistice) with the Norks, and Luther Strange’s electoral prospects in Alabama (which may be an embarrassment, although Trump will of course deny that).

    And finally (but first), yes, I think the management of the NFL teams is being coerced into accepting the players’ behavior — albeit not in the legalistic sense of coercion, as it’s used in contract law, as a defense to escape responsibility for a contract signed at literal (not just economic) gunpoint. In a more general nonlegal sense of the term, yes, they’re coerced, caught between scissors formed by economics (falling revenues) and moral condemnation (they’re raaaaaaaacists!!!!1!).

    Beldar (fa637a)

  186. True that, narciso. Has the leftwing-controlled entertainment complex and its disdain for America ever been more evident? As mentioned before, these fellows and their muddled protest fail to comprehend their responsibility – whether asked for or not – to provide positive role models for thousands of kids who want for that, who desperately need that. They should be ashamed.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  187. I ought to have added, besides commanding public attention in a rocky time, that Trump sees this as divisive in ways that he believes, probably accurately, that will motivate his base and add to it at the margins, which is his ultimate motivation. He appropriated this issue because he thinks it will enhance the Trump Brand.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  188. @ Col H (#200): Yes. But one can’t shame the shameless, a familiar but true refrain.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  189. If I was paying attention just now (and I admit to being distracted), I’m pretty sure I just saw Jerry Jones and the Cowboys all link arms and jointly take a knee before the National Anthem in their away-game at Arizona; then, before the presentation of the colors (and unfurling of a giant flag on-field), they joined the Cardinals players in standing, arms linked, for the Anthem.

    If so, this strikes me as a clever compromise for tonight — on MNF, the League’s flagship economic property behind only the Super Bowl and the playoffs.

    Now we can spend several more days talking about the pregame ceremonies for week 4, right?

    Beldar (fa637a)

  190. I don’t think he sees it as divisive, patriotism support for law enforcement and fmrly Americas favorite pastime, its in the eye of the beholder.

    narciso (d1f714)

  191. Yup, my #203 is apparently confirmed elsewhere with linked video.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  192. So is this in the eye of the beholder:

    http://moonbattery.com/graphics/che-auschwitz.jpg

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  193. I’m thinking a little bird told them what was what, more so than Jerrah .
    http://twitter.com/LarryFitzgerald/status/298418125358108672/photo/1

    urbanleftbehind (2a286e)

  194. I called them the National Felons League before “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot”.
    When they came up with “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot”, I responded with “Hands Up, Spell Cat”.
    Now? They’re still clowns who don’t deserve the attention they’re getting, and their antics should be beneath the dignity of a President. But “dignity” and “Donald Trump” don’t belong in the same breath.

    nk (dbc370)

  195. Regarding TCE (NFL Brain), reserves are important. Louis Pasteur had a stroke that affected half his brain, and he remained a genius. These guys? Most of them can barely tie their shoes even without any brain injury.

    nk (dbc370)

  196. How the national anthem — and subverting it — became a pregame tradition in America

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/09/24/how-the-national-anthem-and-subverting-it-became-a-pregame-tradition-in-america/?utm_term=.937ef4f94b48

    It’s a good read.

    And– we can blame this all on the now World Series Champions, the Chicago Cubs!

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  197. Ex-country singer takes a knee at Titan’s game

    Welcome to Applebee’s, can I show you to your table?

    Pinandpuller (f8b0e2)

  198. @211. Perhaps the salad bar, first.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  199. Sudanese immigrant shoots up Nashville area church; kills one:

    Hands up, don’t shoot my racially diverse church

    Pinandpuller (f8b0e2)

  200. 202… unfortunately, too true, Beldar. They don’t “embarrass easy”.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  201. A friend from Argentina was visiting. One of the things he wanted to take in was baseball game. On short notice, and with pennant fever, all he could get was obstructed view under the scoreboard. He told me, it was one of the most moving experiences of his life. Before the game started, everybody stood up, looked at him, and sang out, “Jose, can you see?”

    nk (dbc370)

  202. Many years I have cared about sports, but in the last 15 not so much. I can honestly say the 2 sporting events I will continue to watch will be The United States Open Golf Championship and my favorite The British Open Championship. I have no more time to invest in cultural madness. Clown Roger has failed American tax-payers.

    mg (31009b)

  203. @199 Beldar thanks for your response. I don’t have a lot to add right now, but I appreciate the response.

    Davethulhu (3a2442)

  204. there’s not a goddamn thing the CNN Jake Tapper fake news propaganda slut media can say about this story what doesn’t make it worse

    the NFL’s just toxic like hepatitis San Diego anymore

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  205. Small handed makes for a bad QB, Beldar.

    mg (31009b)

  206. Now they took a knee “before” the National Anthem. So what? Their intent was already established. No take-backs. The left ruins everything they touch. They also politicize it. They also turn it dirty. At this point as far as I’m concerned watching a bunch of millionaires display contempt for my country and myself ends my relationship. Screw them.

    The next time some billionaire owner wants taxpayers to build a stadium or his spoiled millionaire players let’s you and I “take a knee” and pass.

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  207. Just watched the video of this disaster and when they panned in on Jerry Jones his face said it all. With the crowd booing-
    Turn out the lights this parties over

    mg (31009b)

  208. Football fans are Tony Stewart.

    BLMSJW’s are Kevin Ward Jr.

    Refresher

    Pinandpuller (f8b0e2)

  209. So by that logic, if one believes certain rumors about To…

    urbanleftbehind (2a286e)

  210. You notice how auicklu this story dissapeared.

    narciso (d1f714)

  211. Yeah, but being legal and an ostensibly Christian kind of Sudanese, didn’t fit as neatly into accepted narratives. It just points out certain beliefs in the native AA community if repeated enough can even grind into the upstanding (relatively) West Indian and African youth.A-A

    urbanleftbehind (2a286e)

  212. Sadly so, the church ushers armedcdefense was also problematic.

    narciso (d1f714)

  213. @229 narciso

    The area there is mixed between suburbs, farmland and industrial parks. It’s not too far away from where a guy got shot during a showing of Mad Max Fury Road Vincente Montano

    Pinandpuller (f8b0e2)

  214. Are they better armed over there than in texas?

    narciso (d1f714)

  215. From the Dallas Cowboy’s team website, after a brief reference to the controversy’s background:

    For their part, the Cowboys opted for a display of team unity across the entire organization. With Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones front and center, the full Jones Family joined the Cowboys’ coaching staff and players in linking arms down the length of the field.

    In the moments before the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the full organization briefly dropped to one knee together. After several seconds, they stood and retreated to the sideline for the national anthem.

    It was a demonstration unlike any of the others seen across the league over the week, and it was in keeping with the Cowboys’ comments on the issue. Both Jones and Cowboys coach Jason Garrett have said in the past that they believe in the sanctity of the American flag. The decision allowed the Cowboys to make a team statement on the issue – albeit not during the anthem itself.

    What Trump should do with this is use it as his excuse to claim victory, then move to his next chaos d’jure. Specifically, he should note — accurately — that after the Cowboys and Cardinals players saw the public’s reaction to the protests yesterday, a reaction led by Trump in defense of the Flag, Motherhood, and Trump-Brand Apple Pie(tm), not a single player took a knee during the singing of the National Anthem.

    He’ll declare that having solved this problem, he, Trump — greatest racial healer since Lincoln, surely, some people say better, buh-lieb him — and Jerry Jones and the rest of the NFL Owners will be meeting at Mar Lago this week. They will meet to discuss the creation of similar, but even better League and NFLPA-coordinated platforms for player political and cultural expression, with branded merchandise available online and fantasy football cross-over applications for both iPhone and Android. The program will include this spring’s First-Ever Second-Team All-Stars Game, which will be devoted entirely to passing offense, special teams, and politics, televised by MSNBC and featuring Rachel Maddow for the play-by-play, with Keith Olbermann as the Waterboy. After every change of possession (other than after a score), each team has to vote one player off the island — after which such players will be fired from NFL football, but offered guest appearances on Celebrity Cheerleader Bachelorettes, featuring Jerry Jones and the incomparable Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders(tm)(r)(c).

    Meanwhile, former Secretary of State and lifelong NFL superfan Condi Rice has agreed to the joint request of Roger Goodell and the POTUS to immediately replace Goodell as Commissioner of the NFL, with her first act in that new office being the appointment of a multi-cultural bipartisan government funded advisory commission.

    Goodell is departing the office to accept his appointment as the Ambassador of the United States to North Korea. His embassy will be a forward bunk-room aboard the USS Michigan (SSBN-727/SSGN-727), an Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine repurposed into a guided missile submarine, currently cruising the Korean coasts.

    The new armistice — on NFL fields, not Korea, sorry, was that confusing? — will be enforced informally by the NFLPA and the very, very substantial majority of NFL players in the League who didn’t take a knee, ever, but who have gone over the League’s revenue projections with the NFLPA’s green eyeshades people so they can squeeze a better deal out of the owners during the next collective bargaining agreement negotiation. As I mentioned above, Kessler understands that a parasite which kills its host may pay with its own death, and this issue is far from the only one percolating right now that could prove the proximate cause of the NFL’s collapse.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  216. Sentence the NFL to Build that Wall.

    mg (31009b)

  217. Soon the nfl will make the t.v. stations pump in sound. They have already quit showing the empty seats.

    mg (31009b)

  218. the dallas cowboys are perverted pedophiles what hate America and Jesus anymore

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  219. I doubt the Cowboys defused this stinkbomb as much as others seem to think they have. They may have restaged the imagery but the social justice warriors and identity politics are going to make the NFL wish they’d stuck to the game operations manual and directed teams and players to stand for the national anthem – period. The long march of socialism through the institutions having now gained a foothold in the NFL continues. Too bad. They’re doing it to themselves.

    crazy (d99a88)

  220. 231, yes and since they don’t brag about it, there’s an element is surprise. And never ask Instapundit…he will tell you that TX is the child of TN.

    urbanleftbehind (d38dce)

  221. 233, why so they can all be like Sam Hurd?

    urbanleftbehind (d38dce)

  222. 236, the kicker during the interregnum between Staubach and Aikman was.

    urbanleftbehind (d38dce)

  223. TX is the child of TN

    And it should be an example to everybody how far you can rise above your beginnings.

    nk (dbc370)

  224. At the bottom of the ocean… 1000 of them… they’ll move the water… and carry the water… http://www.westword.com/news/jason-flores-williams-to-sue-colorad-on-behalf-of-the-colorado-river-9512116

    Colonel Haiku (d82f96)

  225. Well that makes sense, Houston, crockett, Bowie if I remember

    narciso (d1f714)

  226. “The FBI released its official crime tally for 2016 today, and the data flies in the face of the rhetoric that professional athletes rehearsed in revived Black Lives Matter protests over the weekend. Nearly 900 additional blacks were killed in 2016 compared with 2015, bringing the black homicide-victim total to 7,881. Those 7,881 “black bodies,” in the parlance of Ta-Nehisi Coates, are 1,305 more than the number of white victims (which in this case includes most Hispanics) for the same period, though blacks are only 13 percent of the nation’s population. The increase in black homicide deaths last year comes on top of a previous 900-victim increase between 2014 and 2015.

    Who is killing these black victims? Not whites, and not the police, but other blacks. In 2016, the police fatally shot 233 blacks, the vast majority armed and dangerous, according to the Washington Post. The Post categorized only 16 black male victims of police shootings as “unarmed.” That classification masks assaults against officers and violent resistance to arrest. Contrary to the Black Lives Matter narrative, the police have much more to fear from black males than black males have to fear from the police. In 2015, a police officer was 18.5 times more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male was to be killed by a police officer. Black males have made up 42 percent of all cop-killers over the last decade, though they are only 6 percent of the population. That 18.5 ratio undoubtedly worsened in 2016, in light of the 53 percent increase in gun murders of officers—committed vastly and disproportionately by black males. Among all homicide suspects whose race was known, white killers of blacks numbered only 243.”

    https://www.city-journal.org/html/hard-data-hollow-protests-15458.html

    Colonel Haiku (d82f96)

  227. 240-
    No. This would be an opportunity for them to do something positive with their privileged lives.
    I can see it now- tb 12 handing out avocado ice cream to all his sweating nfl brethren.

    mg (31009b)

  228. Jim Bowie was from Kentucky, and his stamping grounds were in Louisiana with sojourns in Mississippi. He was already a Texan and a Mexican citizen by the time of the Revolution, having married the daughter of the vice governor and settled there.

    nk (dbc370)

  229. jerry jones couldn’t look more ridiculous on his knees like a filthy back-alley hooker

    not a good look jerry

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  230. When John Wayne made “The Alamo”, he would have been perfect in the role of Bowie, and Richard Widamrk better as Davy Crockett. But Davy Crockett had a better publicist than Bowie and left a more sympathetic legend.

    nk (dbc370)

  231. That Alamo film was complex and even handed. Wayne did have to keep the Durango studio hands content.

    urbanleftbehind (d38dce)

  232. Oh, I think it’s a great movie.

    nk (dbc370)

  233. Davy has a theme song and a cap Mr. Bowie just has the knife

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  234. I meant things like that scene where they balance feathers just to determine who throws the first punch. Perfect for a John Wayne character, right? Well, that’s something Bowie would have done. He was a roisterer and a swashbuckler.

    nk (dbc370)

  235. The point is, this whole exercise is about deconstructing instittiona, the flag, the anthem, any noon cllectuvist barriers to group think.

    narciso (d1f714)

  236. Exactly. The NFL is just as done as professional boxing and wrestling. They just don’t know it. What will be the next cause? Lady kickers? Lady-boy cheerleaders?

    crazy (d99a88)

  237. I wouldn’t call professional football an institution. One reason I would welcome the demise of professional football is that it would also mean radical changes in college football. Colleges would no longer be able to sucker players with the false hope that it’s the springboard to professional football.

    nk (dbc370)

  238. I know you meant something else, but I skipped a step. If it’s a matter of the flag or NFL, the flag will win.

    nk (dbc370)

  239. It is the idea behind the institution, nit its current form, competition, professional development.

    narciso (d1f714)

  240. thanks for the read, narciso.

    mg (31009b)

  241. Mr. Bowie just has the knife

    When I was a kid, happyfeet, The Adventures of Jim Bowie was on TV and he had a song. I still remember it and can sing it for you.

    256.The point is, this whole exercise is about deconstructing instittiona, the flag, the anthem, any noon cllectuvist barriers to group think.
    narciso (d1f714) — 9/26/2017 @ 6:30 am

    I disagree, narciso. This *whole exercise* is the culmination of years of anti-white racism as encapsulated in the “white privilege” and “all whites are racist” themes of the left especially those fermented in schools and academia. Todays blacks hold “America” in contempt because 150 years ago there was slavery. There was slavery all over the world, and slavery was never about race but none of that matters.

    For a bunch of multimillionaires with their billionaire owners to “take a knee” against America (which is exactly what they are doing) is a disgrace. But for those of you who cannot see due to your white guilt, they hate you. And the whites who support this are f*%#ing idiots.

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  242. Yes, but what is the end result, they submit to the Borg.

    narciso (d1f714)

  243. narciso, here is what this means in America today.

    http://bastionofliberty.blogspot.com/2017/09/on-being-white.html

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  244. 266, weird…one of that blogs author’s younger relatives may have been an intern for me a few summers ago. Same last name, both from L.I. Good kid great employee.

    urbanleftbehind (d38dce)

  245. Former Army Ranger and current Pittsburgh Steelers player Alejandro Villanueva told the media he’s embarrassed over the fact he stood alone during the national anthem prior to Sunday’s game in Chicago. …

    The offensive tackle also told reporters, “I made coach Tomlin look bad, and that is my fault and my fault only. I made my teammates look bad, and that is my fault…only.”

    So in todays America the left has actually succeeded in making a Army Ranger feel ashamed for standing with his hand over his heart during the National Anthem. Wow! What a sh!tball nation this has become. Everything good and noble the left turns bad and all that is vile and evil the left holds as good. And these animals are teaching our kids, entertaining our youth and being paid millions to do it. White guilt is really white stupidity.

    This is the result of allowing the left to teach blacks professional victimhood for 60 years. This is the result of being afraid to tell the truth for fear of being called “raaaaacist”. And it ain’t over yet. When the Dems get back in power all you white suckers are gonna get taught a lesson about voting wrong.

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  246. I read Liberty’s Torch daily, urbanleftbehind. After Patterico, naturally. I like Francis W. Porretto’s writing. I don’t always agree with the guy but who does with anybody? But he’s interesting.

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  247. In the spirit of mg and happyfeet’s call for nfler’s to assist their fellow citizen, I appoint Villanueva captain of the Puerto Rican relief effort. Give him 3 ships and a yellow and white sash.

    urbanleftbehind (d38dce)

  248. Check this out. Why on earth are taxpayers giving money to NFL franchises?

    By Julia O’Donoghue,
    julia_odonoghue@nola.com,

    NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

    Offended by New Orleans Saints players who protested by sitting during the national anthem Sunday (Sept. 24), state House Rep. Kenny Havard, R-Jackson, called for Louisiana’s government to pull state funding, tax breaks and other support from the professional football franchise.

    “Disrespecting our national anthem and flag in the name of social injustice is the highest form of hypocrisy,” Havard said in a written statement Monday.

    State Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, has also requested the Saints’ state benefits be reviewed by the Legislature’s Senate and House budget committees as a result of the players’ protest. Hodges is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, which oversees state finances.

    About $165 million of the Saints’ $1.5 billion value can be attributed to public funding, tax breaks and incentives given to Saints owner Tom Benson each year, according to an analysis The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com conducted in 2016. Benson, Louisiana’s richest resident, owes a good portion of his estimated $2.2 billion fortune to his ownership of two professional sports franchises, the Saints and the New Orleans Pelicans, which are both supported with taxpayer money.

    “I believe in the right to protest, but not at a taxpayer-subsidized sporting event. Do it on your own time. There are plenty of disabled children, elderly and veterans in this state that would appreciate the money,” Havard said.

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  249. 268. Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7) — 9/26/2017 @ 7:16 am

    So in todays America the left has actually succeeded in making a Army Ranger feel ashamed for standing with his hand over his heart during the National Anthem.

    he’s like a “scab.” Doesn’t matter if the strike doesn’t make any sense, and he doesn’t even support the demands. As he said, he’s making his teammates,, and his coach as well, look bad. Now maybe he shouldn’t apologize for that.

    This is the result of allowing the left to teach blacks professional victimhood for 60 years.

    Make taht 50 years. They actually use to be victims – then the leaders of the Civil Rights movement didn’t want to stop, and they had to started “reaching” for victimhood status. (they could have complaints about other things, like poverty and poor education, and requiring unnecessary qualifications for jobs, that were not strictly racial, but might have owed considerably to the the after-effects of discrimination, but the remedy would have something other than racial quotas, and they might even have put together a coalition, but they didn’t want to go that route, but rather went for something that enhanced their ownn status and brought some of them wealth.

    What’s going on now with the knees is nothing but endorsing a pack of lies. Actual injustices can be remedied.

    Sammy Finkelman (ff268d)

  250. Modified, limited, sidestep.

    Yesterday, I received an email from a Steelers fan who said tell the players to just play football. That is exactly what they wanted to do. They wanted their sole focus to be on playing the game, while also coming together as a unified team.

    Art Rooney, II

    crazy (d99a88)

  251. “Good morning, Mr. nk, I’m from Polls R Us and we’re taking a survey. It’s only two questions and the answer need be only as long as you care to make it.”

    “Ok. Shoot.”

    “Question 1: Do you respect the opinion of any NFL player regarding proper respect for our flag?”

    “No.”

    “Not even Alejandro Villanueva?”

    “That’s right. Not even him.”

    “Question 2: ….

    “Hold on, didn’t you just ask Question 2?”

    “Yes, I guess I did, sir, and I apologize. I guess it’s … let me see … 1, 2, 3 questions. I’m sorry, you see, I was a college football player before I became a pollster.”

    “No problem. Go ahead with your third question.”

    “Do you respect the opinion of Donald Trump regarding proper respect for our flag?”

    “Hell, no!”

    nk (dbc370)

  252. it’s not just the stupid flag it’s about not doing politics all up in everything

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  253. Yes, yes, it is. The players and Mr. President both.

    And don’t call the flag stupid.

    nk (dbc370)

  254. I’m gonna go watch the ending of “Death Race 2000”, now.

    nk (dbc370)

  255. The Left’s (brilliant) scam behind the NFL anthem protests

    And to their credit, it seems to be working this time. No amount of campaigning or colored ribbons would have gotten the faithful NFL fans to abandon America’s favorite sport, but if they could manage to get the players to start dragging politics out of the press briefing room and onto the field, that might be the final straw to break the camel’s back. If they could drive a wedge between the players and the fans, and then divide the fans themselves into splintering, warring camps, arguing over the politically correct aspects of these offensive displays, they might finally put a dent in the popularity of football.

    And it seems to be working. The ratings for Sunday Night Football this week were the worst in over a decade. Viewership for other games was off as well. People I’ve been following on social media for years who would rather risk their jobs than miss a game featuring their home team are so disgusted that they’re not even bothering to tune in. Divisive, infuriating identity politics was probably the only thing with the potential to kill football if you could find a way to inject a hefty dose of it into the NFL’s bloodstream. And now they’ve done it.

    crazy (d99a88)

  256. @ crazy (#278): I’m not much of a fan of Jazz Shaw’s. He’s wrong more often than he’s right when he tries to write about legal matters, which is my main beef with him. But he’s wrong here, too: This is not a brilliant, widely coordinated scheme by the Left and the mainstream media to destroy the NFL. Shaw writes, without a single shred of supporting evidence (italics his):

    This has little or nothing to do with police shootings, racial profiling or any of the rest of it. What we’re seeing is an almost brilliant and concerted effort to damage, if not eliminate, the National Football League.

    Why? Because the activist Left has despised the NFL for years. They hate everything about it. It’s a game filled with big, tough, manly men engaging in the closest thing to warfare you can manage without guns. It’s a game rife with symbolism and, yes … nationalism.

    Yes, the Left doesn’t believe in a lot of patriotic symbolism, and yes, there’s a lot of that associated in a generalized way with the NFL, and with college football and major league baseball and Nascar and so forth.

    But Shaw has supposition and no evidence, and ignores such evidence as there is. If we’re going to make suppositions from circumstances, then let’s include the circumstantial evidence in that. The evidence — the chain of causation — is that this protest started with Colin F’g Kaepernick, not some deep strategic thinker with his hands on the public opinion slider bars of the Left’s great grinding propaganda organs.

    I agree this stuff threatens the future of the NFL. I agree that many on the left wouldn’t mourn it. I emphatically reject the implied “therefore, the left did this” which the silly Mr. Shaw jumps to.

    I reject Shaw’s argument for the very reason that I’ve previously argued, which is that Trump very deliberately turned a small-scale lingering controversy going back two seasons into a national issue that has dominated the news cycle for days now precisely because Trump sees that this fight will end up strengthening the Trump Brand and his personal political capital among his base. It will indeed help him expand his base.

    For the NFL to collapse in these circumstances couldn’t possibly help the Left. There’s the gnome underpants for you:

    1. Protest leads to controversy
    2. NFL collapses, fans angrily reject its political correctness and it goes out of business
    3. ????
    4. Democrats win the White House, Congress, and all those state legislatures and governorships they lost during Obama.

    When Jazz can fill in those question marks, I’ll take him seriously. But with due and genuine respect to you, crazy, even if you feel otherwise than I do about his essay, I think this is Mr. Shaw at his panty-twisted worst.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  257. When Shaw writes a headline characterizing this as a “brilliant” plan, he means, “I am brilliant for having recognized this.” What he thinks he’s recognized is bogus, and he’s not brilliant, and it’s not the Left’s plan in this instance, it’s just their normal reactions, which Trump is manipulating. My trumpet will reliably play either The National Anthem or La Internationale depending on what I do with it. That doesn’t mean my trumpet is smart.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  258. @278. That’s crazy, crazy.

    The NFL is quite literally self-destructing; it’s following a path blazed by boxing. Visit some schools; the boys and girls are into soccer these days– that’s their future in 30 years or so, not football.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  259. i love the flag it’s my favorite

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  260. Boxing may not be a perfect comparison because of the more direct raw nature of its violence and nature of its appeal being tied to the peasant/lower class du jour. Was the trajectory of boxing’s decline deepened by the outspoken-ness, incarceration and welcoming back of Muhammad Ali? Or was it the passage of people out of the sport due to things like the Duk Koo Kim incident and Ali’s mental decline? The NFL was probably headed to a less gradient decline and regionalization (concentrated in areas overlapping the SEC and some of the rust belt) of the game just on the concerns over CTE and perhaps the perception that blacks have a immutable physical advantage for the sport. As soccer and lacrosse have filled that void, MMA filled the void left by boxing.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  261. The protest started with Ferguson, and then turbocharged by Colon K.

    Colonel Haiku (6c3294)

  262. Colon K? That sounds like a combo of Special K and this comedic gem.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  263. @284. Well, the ‘raw nature’ of years of head butting in football is beginning to reveal itself through science and there are more teams, hence exposure, for injury than the one-on-one bouts causing damage from boxing. The high profile stories like Ali we know, but there are plenty out of the spotlight as well who suffered a similar fate. No doubt there’s studies in work over rugby as well. It’s self-evident that getting cracked in the head over and over for years is simply not healthy. But it is a choice made by participants and they should know the risks. But boxings target audience wasn’t much different than football back in the day, before the league merger and the NFL marketing machine took off in tandem w/television. We all know how and why the Super Bowl came about. A way back in the day, my late grandfather was a good friend of the late Art Rooney Sr., when Pgh was a big, small town; working class city– perfect for football and baseball and in those days, the Steelers played at Pitt Stadium and they literally gave tickets away because unlike the college games, few would go to the pro games. Hard to believe now. Hence Rooney gave my grandfather lots of good 50 yard line seats for games which he took my late father to. The price was right for an afternoon’s entertainment. Fast forward 40 years into the NFL’s exploding success; when Three Rivers was being built, Rooney told my GP to go pick his seats for season tickets– 45 yard line w/good angled field view, just under the over hang in case of rain or snow, near the Men’s Room. They were perfect. But those days– and those season tickets– are long gone.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  264. @287. The stadium issue is the elephant in the room. Basically, that why the Chargers bolted from San Diego.

    It varies from city to city but in SD, the city and the county taxpayers were being held hostage for years by threats to leave unless they financed a new stadium w/skyboxes and such to keep the team in town, and the stadium they had was fine w/good weather all the time to boot. It just didn’t have the pricey skyboxes and such to draw in big dollar clientele. And, the team was lackluster for years, which was bad timing. Problem was, the ‘taxpayers’ couldn’t afford to pay to go to the games as it was, too– several games were blacked out because of it– what with high ticket prices, parking and concession costs. And the numbers for any collateral businesses losing out if they left just didn’t counter balance w/t cost of a new stadium, projected into the billions. They tried to compromise for a decade or more but in the end, the team left for LA for digs and a better TV deal. And the irony is, they’re not missed much at all.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  265. @231 narciso

    The first time I lived in TN they had just rolled out the carry permit. The police blotter in the local paper showed a lot of people charged with “intent to go armed. I didn’t end up getting one because I moved back to WY which is an open carry state.

    I haven’t seen anyone charged with that since I’ve been back.

    The problem I saw with the Daily Caller article was the reference to the 22 year old guy having a “concealed carry” permit. In TN it’s just a carry permit. How you carry is up to you but you better have your permit on you if police stop you.

    They recently changed the law to be less restrictive on carrying in your vehicle though. As long as the guy from the church had permission to keep his gun on church grounds he would be fine.

    TX recently changed their law to allow open carry. I think it’s still predicated on being licensed.

    FL is sort of weird in that you can open carry only while hunting or fishing or traveling between these activities and a vehicle. There have been some cops who acted like idiots to people basically trying to educate them. FL also changed their law to be more lenient on unintentional “brandishing” or “printing”. Used to be if you reached up above your head and your gun peeked out you could go to jail.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  266. @234 mg

    They have seat-fillers at the Oscars. Antifa needs jobs. Not as good as a no-show job but hey.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  267. @242 nk

    Can we be the Four Star with Joint Custody State?

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  268. Does Jason Flores-Williams answer to “Sir Ben”?

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  269. Joe Rogan interviews James Damore.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  270. @279 Beldar

    Well certain leftish constituencies protest injustice by burning down their own neighborhoods so maybe there isn’t a plan.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  271. 286… yes, ULH… you read it right… Colon and he blows.

    Colonel Haiku (6c3294)

  272. Assuming without watching that you’d posted SNL’s “Colon Blow” cereal commercial…

    Colonel Haiku (6c3294)

  273. 279. Beldar (fa637a) — 9/26/2017 @ 10:49 am

    Trump very deliberately turned a small-scale lingering controversy going back two seasons into a national issue that has dominated the news cycle for days now precisely because Trump sees that this fight will end up strengthening the Trump Brand and his personal political capital among his base. It will indeed help him expand his base.

    But will it elect Luther Strange and keep Roy Moore out of the Senate?

    If not, what’s the point of all this? And what’s its worth?

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  274. I see kids these days who claim to be wanting a job. How they come in and present themselves is amazing. I’m talking all colors, creeds and 63(?) genders.

    I haven’t ever so much as asked for an application in anything less than a polo shirt and khakis. I don’t wear a hat. I shave. I don’t think I’ve interviewed in anything other than a dress shirt, tie and slacks.

    But unlike these hapless kids I see every day, the American footballers have all their stuff on the internet. It doesn’t matter how they dress for their next career opportunity. They already made their first impression.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  275. I hear you Beldar @279-281. I don’t agree with all of it either but thought some might appreciate the argument. If I was wrong about that then I’ll think longer and post slower.

    My view is Goodell’s elastic definitions of what’s a rule violation and what isn’t over his tenure led to this. As I recall he set himself up as the ultimate authority in the last labor agreement leading to multiple disputes and lawsuits. In this case if he’d just stuck to the existing rules in the Game Operations Manual 2 years ago none of this would have happened but a sulky QB unhappy about losing his starting spot and using his skin color as an immunity idol saw an opportunity to make both the team and the league uncomfortable and found neither willing to enforce the rule about standing respectfully as the national anthem is played. The appeasement of tolerating and ignoring his rule violation obviously didn’t work, even when the original offender was no longer on a team roster.

    I don’t know whether Trump planned to talk about this or got carried away in proving his regular guy credentials by breaking into the dirty jobs dialect he learned hanging around his dad’s construction sites as a kid. Either way he inflamed and polarized the issue in ways we’re only just beginning to feel. I appreciate what the Cowboys tried to do last night to find some middle ground (I even suggested it yesterday am) but doubt it will work. The NFLPA you wrote about yesterday is going to redouble its efforts to ensure there’s no enforcement of the stand for the anthem rule as long as Trump is POTUS and without it no obvious end to the argument. So we’re stuck.

    Hope I’m wrong.

    crazy (d99a88)

  276. crazy, agreed totally re Weathervane Roger.

    I hope the NFLPA might mostly reflect the concerns of the players who didn’t take a knee, though, on this one. That is, I don’t think they’ve had to commit bigtime yet (because nobody tried to fire or bench Kaepernick when he was still a player, and now he’s just another ex-player). Player unions want their members and the public to perceive them as being all about supporting player free expression, but that’s not what the unions are actually much interested in, as compared to salary caps, free agency restrictions, pensions, revenue sharing, and other dollars and cents issues. We’re not talking the American Federation of Government Employees here. They’ll certainly continue to make the right (which is to say, leftist) genuflections and public noises of absolute solidarity yada yada, but this is a disastrous fight for both owners and players, and I think the NFLPA will be as eager to find a face-saving deescalating approach as the owners are. I am sure they’ll extract whatever concessions from the League they can out of the chaos, i.e., they’ll miss no opportunity to exploit the owners’ weaknesses next time they’re at the bargaining table (or planning for that, which means all the time). But I don’t think they’ll get in the way of a grand compromise if there’s one to be had in which the kneelers and the owners manage to save face while still satisfying the bulk of the NFL fan base. This is an economically stupid fight for anyone to let persist.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  277. And I’m not fussing at you, crazy, for posting the link to Shaw’s piece! I’m just a might tetchy when it comes to him. Reading his essay gave me a chance to vent here, but I wasn’t intending to vent in your direction at all, so please don’t slow or inhibit your instincts! I didn’t presume you necessarily agreed with everything in it by linking it.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  278. @298. Sammy, HC bill pulled; Corker quits; Moore heading for the end zone… McConnell can’t punt, pass or kick today… but likely be sippin’ summa hiz Kentucky bourbon tonight.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  279. “Yes, the Left doesn’t believe in a lot of patriotic symbolism…”

    Pfft. Flag on the play; personal foul.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2hkw-qYEWQ

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  280. What was the same of the player who slapped his girlfriend in the elevatit and was lightly slapped down.

    narciso (d1f714)

  281. @306. Ray Price. Here’s the elevator video:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dp47DeNAukw

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  282. So thecreal villain in kinsman is the president, who is placed by Bruce greenwood (he hasn’t been the bad guy since rules of engagement), his chief of staff is named fox

    narciso (d1f714)

  283. Brethren, who knew this post would collect so many comments? Finally we have an alternative (sort of) topic of interest. Kudos to our host.

    felipe (023cc9)

  284. Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7) — 9/26/2017 @ 4:07 pm

    rev, your link redirects to the google femme page.

    felipe (023cc9)

  285. Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7) — 9/26/2017 @ 4:09 pm

    I would consider the source, rev.

    felipe (023cc9)

  286. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iKMoE75RQo

    Fool burns $450 Steeler jacket. And, surprise– he’s a Texan.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  287. “What was the same of the player who slapped his girlfriend in the elevatit…”

    She’d had some work done?

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  288. Thanks Beldar. I always enjoy your posts and critiques. It’s sad that like most big messes this was so avoidable by all involved. My pragmatic head says you’re right but my gut says there’s really no way to compromise over whether sitting, kneeling, hiding out is equal to standing respectfully during the rendering of the colors and the playing of the national anthem. Either way, we should have a good idea by Thursday night or Sunday afternoon if they’ve found a way to make this go away.

    If I were the owners I’d fire Roger giving somebody like Condi Rice time to fix the whole thing, but that’s just me.

    crazy (d99a88)

  289. I will trademark “elevatit.” Then I just got to “pair” it with the right product.

    felipe (023cc9)

  290. If I were the owners I’d fire Roger giving somebody like Condi Rice time to fix the whole thing, but that’s just me.
    crazy (d99a88) — 9/26/2017 @ 4:35 pm

    I’m with you on that, crazy.

    felipe (023cc9)

  291. That West Point photo is a photoshop.

    nk (dbc370)

  292. Well, yeah, look who tweeted it.

    felipe (023cc9)

  293. Not totally convinced on Condi, probably more of an Honore/Cain/West type.

    urbanleftbehind (3c8eef)

  294. Oh, I am convinced on Condi; She rocks! (I’m trying to channel HF, and prolly failing)

    felipe (023cc9)

  295. Thank God Trump is getting to this sometime next week.

    http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_59ca4e67e4b06ddf45fb293a

    Ben burn (19b232)

  296. Yes but she knows the game, which is a diaqualidier probably.

    narciso (d1f714)

  297. “I’ll gladly pay you three rubles tomorrow for a ruble today..”

    http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/26/politics/donald-trump-puerto-rico-visit/

    Ben burn (19b232)

  298. @323. Guess you missed his presser– it’s an island — and trucks can’t just drive there.

    Priceless.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  299. I was on dog rescue detail DC. Was this the Hooter?

    Ben burn (19b232)

  300. @326. He dropped a few in the punch bowl but that was a good laugh line for the day.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  301. ^ 329 for 327

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  302. What another ‘weak’, he’s having. At least he’s oblivious.

    Ben burn (40f73a)

  303. He’s fresh buttered popcorn is what he is

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  304. Lol hf. He’s the orange varnish?

    Ben burn (40f73a)

  305. @331. The cherry on the sundae today will be pistol-packin’ Moore winning tonight in ‘Bama. If the win is in, he’ll be the GOP poster child next cycle. And Corker quit, too.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  306. no i mean he’s prosaic and scrumptious all at the same time and you smell him the minute you walk into Walmart

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  307. @332. Orange sherbet, Mr. Feet. Yummy!

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  308. Well corker should be run out of town on a rail, like fellow senator blunt, I’m nit sure an indictment won’t find him still.

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/276655/

    narciso (d1f714)

  309. 317… good idea, felipe! Lift those puppies 🐶!!!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  310. Are Federal disaster agencies like FEMA a good thing?

    https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/9/26/16349644/puerto-rico-humanitarian-crisis

    Ben burn (40f73a)

  311. Its striking the lack of basic integrity in a witchhunt
    https://www.scribd.com/mobile/document/359899170/Stone-Opening-Statement#from_embed

    narciso (d1f714)

  312. We heard the anthem play back in Two Thousand Two

    Lying in wait the hustlers turning in on you

    When we were young you know we all looked up to you

    Uh uh oh

    They run the credits for Western Philosophy

    They will demolish your sacred symbology

    And now I understand Control Left menarche

    Uh uh oh

    Brainwash your children

    Uh uh oh

    What you should teach them:

    BLM killed the NFL Star

    BLM killed the NFL Star

    Colin came and took your heart

    Uh uh uh uh oh

    So now they meet in an abandoned stadium

    We see the backlash and player delirium

    I remember when I gave a damn who won

    Uh uh oh

    Black Lives is up ten

    Uh uh oh

    Put Colin K. in

    BLM killed the NFL Star

    BLM killed the NFL Star

    In our hearts and in our minds

    You’ve gone too far, you’ve lost your mind

    Colin came and took your heart

    So put all the blame on Jean-Paul Sartre

    You aren’t…an NFL Star

    You aren’t…an NFL Star

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  313. @337 DCSCA

    Are you familiar with a Star Trek episode called “The Apple”?

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  314. @340. Depends on the administration; some would prefer to air drop crates of bootstraps.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  315. 319.That West Point photo is a photoshop.
    nk (dbc370) — 9/26/2017 @ 4:41 pm

    Aw common, nk. Next you’ll be saying this is photo shopped.

    https://twitter.com/punkproletarian/status/912414218762285056/photo/1

    320.Well, yeah, look who tweeted it.
    felipe (023cc9) — 9/26/2017 @ 4:43 pm

    You actually know that tweet account, felipe? This guy is serious? I thought it was a joke.

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  316. When you’re right, you’re right, Hoagie!

    felipe (023cc9)

  317. Like OJ told his wife, lemme ax you: Is that a West Point haircut? The fa***t got a military cadet’s costume and photoshopped it over a West Point background is my guess.

    nk (dbc370)

  318. The Rev is playin’ witchoo, nk.

    felipe (023cc9)

  319. Then I won’t ax him no mo’, felipe.

    nk (dbc370)

  320. it actually works on a sorta half-a-joint-in performance art level

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  321. I am shocked, ulb! Shocked!

    nk (dbc370)

  322. It’s not so much the fact that players were paid, but that the FBI had such a large involvement; if anything it puts the agencies resources on display to any kneeler with a deeper than “me too” involvement in BLM affairs.

    urbanleftbehind (3c8eef)

  323. The big fraud is the NCAA’s masquerade as an amateur sports organization. In basketball, the NBA is complicit with its age 19 and one year out of high school rule, although it used to be worse.

    nk (dbc370)

  324. @ crazy (#316): By all accounts, Condi still wants the job. It’d be Kennesaw Mountain Landis after the Black Sox all over again (in my fond and over-optimistic imagination).

    Beldar (fa637a)

  325. Condi’s been offered a lot of jobs with substance and import

    year after year after year

    probably more than anyone on the whole erf!

    if she suddenly lunges at being the head of the sleazy nasty America-hating thugtrash pedophile NFL

    that’s would just be pitiful and sad

    she’d be on the same level of useless as Mitch Daniels (except with bonus lesbian tendencies)

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  326. The job pays $30 million a year.

    nk (dbc370)

  327. ugh

    the discerning reader will see that I meant to say *that* would just be pitiful and sad as opposed to the unfortunate rendition above

    and i love you for it

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  328. $30 million a year buys a lot of fancy shoes and tasty crabcakes, that’s for sure

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  329. @ nk (#358): What better starting place than for the new Commish to cut her own salary?

    Beldar (fa637a)

  330. but ffs

    do we really need to draft our best and brightest for to fill the pitiful sleazy role of “NFL Commissioner”

    really really really?

    that idea doesn’t feel good or morally right

    it feels dirty

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  331. Mitch the B #1 is doing good things for Purdue University (tuition freeze, expansion of online offerings with Kaplan U. partnership).

    urbanleftbehind (3c8eef)

  332. he coulda been a contender

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  333. Not to worry. The Commissioner the owners will pick will be a person for whom nothing is more important than money.

    nk (dbc370)

  334. That was for happyfeet. He thinks Condi should not compromise herself by becoming involved with the NFL.

    nk (dbc370)

  335. i do worry though and it ruins all my knitting and all me puddings taste like paste

    can’t go on like this can i?

    I won’t!

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  336. @357. A Russian expert, well-versed in their history of deception, methods and procedures… yep, a perfect fit for NFL commish in the Trump Era.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  337. Sheriff David Clarke is a no-brainer to be the next commish of the n.f.l.

    mg (31009b)

  338. So you know who the heads of the players union dontcha, former holder apptee demaurice smith

    narciso (d1f714)

  339. Since that trial seems to treated as fake news wonder why?

    narciso (d1f714)

  340. 348.Like OJ told his wife, lemme ax you: Is that a West Point haircut? The fa***t got a military cadet’s costume and photoshopped it over a West Point background is my guess.
    nk (dbc370) — 9/26/2017 @ 6:49 pm

    I don’t even know what a West Point haircut looks like any more. Seems every time some wussy complains they change the rules so what would I know? But I’ll take your word for it. I figured it was some guy clowning around but I didn’t consider photoshop. But it seems the guy is real. If he is I do hope it was a very poor joke.

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  341. The new england football squad will play the oakland los angels oakland las vegas football squad in mexico this 2017 season. Can Mexico keep them, please.

    mg (31009b)

  342. Hoagie 310,

    Unfortunately, that is the Twitter account of a real West Point grad and current infantry officer, and it’s not a photo-shopped photo. He posted it to support Colin Kaepernik. He is a socialist and has been known to wear a Che Guevara t-shirt under his uniform.

    The Army released a statement condemning his tweet and is investigating. It is at the link.

    DRJ (15874d)

  343. Is it better to do that before or after your plebe period? You might be inviting abuse if you roll of the bus like that, on the other hand you might get kid glove treatment due to controversy avoidance.

    urbanleftbehind (3c8eef)

  344. DRJ (15874d) — 9/27/2017 @ 6:45 am

    NOOOOOOOO! Stop the world, Iwannagetoff. /end tantrum

    felipe (b5e0f4)

  345. He looks like a bizzarro Milo.

    urbanleftbehind (3c8eef)

  346. Good Lord! The worst part of it is, West Point appointments are rare and valuable and one was wasted on this freak.

    nk (dbc370)

  347. Just out of curiosity, does the Army still have fragmentation grenades?

    nk (dbc370)

  348. That’s right, nk. Which Senator failed to do the required homework? Don’t tell me he is the son of a MoH recipient.

    felipe (b5e0f4)

  349. Maybe he’s a local capo’s weird grandkid.

    urbanleftbehind (3c8eef)

  350. Wonder if he is related to a senator?

    mg (31009b)

  351. What a waste of time for West Point.

    mg (31009b)

  352. thanks for the Rogan link, Pinandpuller.
    Excellent.

    mg (31009b)

  353. YGBSM. Packers Players Ask Fans Attending Thursday’s Game to Lock Arms During National Anthem. “Let’s work together to build a society that is more fair and just.”

    #Just say No.

    crazy (d99a88)

  354. At best, Rapone might get dragooned into Holly Petraus – type duty.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  355. Comments from his father, who lives in Western Pennsylvania:

    Meanwhile, Rapone’s father, Lawrence County Treasurer Richard Rapone, disavowed his son’s political views on his public Facebook page.

    He wrote, “As a young man, Spenser personified patriotism and in high school was a member of the Civil Air Patrol.”

    He explains that Spenser did not get into West Point right away, so he enlisted in the Army after high school and was later deployed to Afghanistan before attending West Point.

    His father wrote “It’s my belief when he returned back from Afghanistan there was a notable difference in his political views. Spenser is my son and I love him dearly, however, I do not like nor condone his politics, his actions or behavior.”

    DRJ (15874d)

  356. Give them the equality they seek. Pay these 1%-ers minimum wage and return ticket prices to six-pack levels.

    crazy (d99a88)

  357. As the camera pans across packers fans locking arms in green boosh they will realize everyone is of one color and go to a commercial break.

    mg (31009b)

  358. Maybe Hoagie was right about Piss burgh.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  359. And the NFL also hired the last dc police chief, so that tells you something.

    narciso (28cebc)

  360. I figured Rapone was just some a$$hole kid doing something stupid he’d regret later in life. I had no idea he was part of the New American Hero League which includes late night comediennes, media news folk, celebrities, professional sports figures and now our very own military. It has become quite fashionable to be an anti-white racist and apparently quite profitable. I guess after 60 years of constant anti white propaganda what would we expect? And if white people are automatically racist and privileged then the country they built, America must be too by extension.

    The Democrats constantly whipping up interracial hatred have brought us to the point where whites and blacks can no longer coexist in America. One group loves America and the other hates it and blames it for every shortcoming they have.

    It really takes magnus ballus for a bunch of millionaires to turn their back on the symbol if the country that has given them so many opportunities. I regret ever having served for this ungrateful, dysfunctional society.

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  361. I wonder when Rapone’s govt-provided sex change takes place…..

    harkin (36810b)

  362. Yeah, harkin – that’s AFTER he’s offered the assignment alluded to in my post #387.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  363. Furthermore – Steve on the 1st day of early voting, Stephanie on election day:

    http://www.yahoo.com/news/jared-kushner-woman-according-voter-145019284.html

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  364. Usually I don’t mind being wrong on the internet, but this one time I’m sad that I was.

    nk (dbc370)

  365. @399 I hear ya, nk.

    Rev.Hoagie® (6bbda7)

  366. Ahem, and why dies neither NY or dc have voter is.

    narciso (d1f714)

  367. Rev Hoagie @ 394. I regret ever having served for this ungrateful, dysfunctional society.

    Please don’t. Without your service we would have lost long ago. Some say we live in a computer simulation – they’re nuts, of course. We live in an episode of The Outer Limits. The more they try to control the culture (horizontal) and the media (vertical) the more they’ll lose at the ballot box. History can be ugly when you’re living in it.

    crazy (d99a88)

  368. nfl recruiting “The Juice” for kneeling Sunday.

    mg (31009b)

  369. 403, why the hell not, Ray Lewis did it.
    But if President Trump snapped a finger, pointed one out and got the Secret Service to take a leak, they’d be on their knees. Shades of his pimping out the NJ Generals Cheerleaders.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  370. 388… that has to be very painful for that father, DRJ.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)


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